ROME — Pope Francis will receive the families of the victims of the October 29 Islamic terror attack, which took place in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption in Nice, France.
The pope has expressed his intention to receive the family members of Nadine Devillers, Simone Barreto Silva, and Vincent Loquès, who were stabbed to death by a 21-year-old Tunisian immigrant named Brahim Issaoui.
Carrying a copy of the Quran and armed with a knife, Issaoui burst into the church and slew the two female parishioners as well as the church sacristan while shouting “Allahu akbar.” (Allah is greater.)
In their Vatican visit, the families will be accompanied by the mayor of the city of Nice, Christian Estrosi, as well as Paolo Celi, president of the Amitié France Italie (AFI) association, who said the meeting will take place “as soon as the health emergency allows it.”
“A huge thank you to Pope Francis who has agreed to receive soon the families of Nadine, Vincent and Simone, victims of the attack in the Notre-Dame basilica,” Mr. Estrosi said in a tweet.
Pope Francis did something similar in September 2016, following the jihadist slaughter of French priest Father Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit by two jihadists as he celebrated the Eucharist in the Norman church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
Approximately 80 French pilgrims traveled to the Vatican to attend the pope’s commemorative Mass for the martyred priest, including the Archbishop of Rouen and the priest’s sister, Rosine Hamel.
On that occasion, the pope offered an extended reflection on Christian martyrdom, asserting in his homily that there are “more Christian martyrs” today than in the early days of Christianity.
“Today there are Christians murdered, tortured, imprisoned, slaughtered because they do not deny Jesus Christ,” he said, and Father Hamel “is part of this chain of martyrs.”
“Christians who suffer today because they will not deny Jesus Christ—whether in prison or by death or torture — they show how cruel this persecution is. And this cruelty that demands apostasy — we say the word — is Satanic.”
Father Hamel “was slain on the Cross,” Francis said, “just as he celebrated the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ.”
This good, humble man, who was always trying to make peace, “was assassinated as if he were a criminal,” Francis said. “This is the way of Satanic persecution.”
“He gave his life for us. He gave his life so as not to deny Jesus,” the Pope said.
The Pope also urged his hearers to ask for the saint’s intercession, that from Heaven he might pray to God for the Church on earth: “Give us meekness, brotherhood, peace, and even the courage to tell the truth: killing in God’s name is satanic,” he said.